Does anyone remember Tamagotchi? Or maybe you had a Giga-Pet growing up? Whatever the case a virtual pet goes by many brand names and today we read one story that is both inspired by the virtual pet craze of the 90’s and the lore behind hermaphrodites (that’s intersex people for those in the know). We also have one story inspired by Dracula and another involving race horses. This is gonna be a fun one! Skip synopsis @ 9:44 Email: 129: Petshop of Horrors vol. 4 By Akino Matsuri Translation by Tomoharu Iwo and James Lucas Jones Lettering by Nunu Ngien Synopsis: When the only witnesses to a murder seems to be to fishes, detective Leon Orcot has D, the mysterious and bohemian Petshop manager take care of them. During the investigation they hunt for one suspect a woman who perhaps dated the murder victim. As things develop D works the case with Leon as an advisor and they soon come across a new witness. A cyber-pet in the form of a digital fish, they learn that like the fishes the murder victim themself was a hermaphrodite, someone capable of changing their gender or at the very least be able to pass as both genders. It becomes clear that the murderer was possibly transphobic. But luckily the cyber-pet had cameras connected and was able to record the crime, although Leon finds it hard for a pet’s words to be admissible in court. D assures him that machines are valued in court, because machines do not lie. In Dark-Horse, Leon and D are on a film set and witness one of the stunt women, Betty, having an accident. The horse breaks its leg, meaning that it will need to be put down, which upsets Betty. D comforts her and learns that she is working part time as a stunt woman, with plans of becoming a jockey and using her own horse to compete in a derby. Betty takes D to her stable and finds she has one horse named sudden death, much to her surprise D recognises that the horse is deaf as well as very calm around the man. Not long after this Betty’s father ends up in hospital, and to pay for his hospital bills she goes to visit D and see what horses he can make a deal with. Of course, it is no surprise D has one called Nightmare, but Betty is taken back to see that the horse that broke their leg is now recovered and being looked after by D. In the end Betty decides not to sell her horse, and instead use Sudden Death to compete in the derby. D promises to help her win and plans to make a miracle happen. On the day of the race, D attends with Leon to support Betty and Sudden Death. He gives Leon a whistle to cheer on Sudden Death. And Leon, because he is an idiot uses the whistle. Because of this Sudden Death wins the race. And in turn it proves D’s theory that the horse is a thoroughbred descendent of Matchem, and thus recognises the legendary and somewhat enchanted whistle. Leon finally has a reason to arrest D since he rigged the game. However, D makes it clear, since they both placed a generous bet on the horse and Leon did blow the whistle, this means Leon is an accessory to the crime. The last story of this volume is a sort of ‘X-files’ meets ‘Murder She Wrote’ style chapter called ‘Dracula,’ which tells the story of a vampire on the loose in America who is specifically targeting east Asian men that fits the description of D. Leon is assigned to protect D as he is partnered with FBI profiler, Norma Langley. She protests the theory of a vampire and explains the cause of death is poison made to look like a vampire attack. But things get tense when leaves Leon to look out on D whilst she decides to catch their unsubdued vampire by herself. Leon gets into a fight with one man, suspecting him of wanting to poison D with his gifts of cake and wine. But the two make up and Leon gets him a beer, he learns that the man is named Alex, still mourning the loss of his dead lover. In the climax of the story Leon decides that the safest place to hide D is by locking him up in a cell at the police station. Leon then investigates D’s home and finds a photo of what appears to be D, Norma, and Alex in the same room. Even if one denies the existence of vampires the correlation is too strong to be coincidence. In a twist of fate. Norma shows up at the station and mortally wounds D, then she waits for the vampire to show. And he does show, Alex flies in and comes just in time to protect D but first he drinks the blood from D’s wound, “ending the contract” as he claims. By drinking D’s blood Alex turns into vapor and dies leaving no corpse. Norma tells D she lost the bet, thinking that Alex would move on the from the death of his lover and instead reunite with her, but Alex chose to reject Norma and unite with his lost love in death. When Leon makes it back to the station, he finds the coffee pots are laced with tranquilizer and sees that D is accompanied by a bat within his prison cell. The bat flies out through the bars and out the window. D is the last person to see Norma, who turned out to be a fake FBI agent after all. Leon refuses to believe that she was a vampire. · The chapters “Flowers and the Detective” will be talked about in a separate episode since these chapters share one continuity and act as a lore building side story to the plot. Having three parts and an additional chapter or two. Context: · Cyber-Pets (or Virtual-Pets) are pocket sized electronic toys that can be carried on a key ring. They were popular in the mid to late 90’s with being the most famous (itself a portmanteau of the Japanese words “egg” and “watch”). Tamagotchi were also a precursor to Pokémon’s rival Digimon, Whilst , released by Tiger Electronics with licensed deals to make Giga-Pets tie-in merchandise for existing franchises, Historical, scientific, and cultural references: · The term “Hermaphrodite” has origins in Greek mythology. Hermaphroditus being the child of Hermes and Aphrodite, whose story is told in . · So, it is male first, then maybe it will become female when it gets higher up and become the alpha of the group. They are not polygamous; males tend to stick by one female. · Humans do not experience hermaphrodism like animals. They do not change sex as some sort of Darwinist response to their environment or their age. However, intersex people do exist. At birth you either have male or female sex organs but some are born with both sex organs. , (although fatherhood could be possible, the studies show it is rare) [Peculiar in that it supports that women are the “default” gender, with males having nipples develop in the womb before they develop gonads, women too may have an enlarged clitoris which may be mistaken for male genitalia, of course this is supposition. – James] · Although not mentioned by James and Will, a person defined as an intersex person could be someone whose puberty is halted or interrupted by underlying conditions, such as, , or to name a few. · The coronation of Victoria as Queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, she was 19 years old at the time. According to Lucy Worsley’s book, the coronation was a bit messy as far as coronations go; the royal treasurer threw silver medals commemorating the event at the crowd which caused quite a ruckus. · who was used for breeding between 1758 and 1781. Eclipse and Herod are also famous horses for the same reason. · His many offspring, include Pumpkin, won up to 1,000 racing matches. And another of Matchem’s offspring, Conductor, gave off a good family tree of winners, including Trumpator who begot, Sorcerer, who then begot Smolensko and Wizard. Why do horses have crazy cool names? · One of D’s horses is a clear a reference to . The image of the horse in the manga is based on the same horse in Fuseli’s 1791 rendition, because of its popularity Fuseli made multiple versions of the painting. All of them depict a woman sleeping, with a demon resting on top of her and a horse peering into the room behind a curtain. A lot do consider it the first depiction of sleep paralysis in an oil painting. · Alex has a bottle of Tokaj (Tokay) wine as a gift to D. Named after its vineyards in Hungary. It is the same wine that Dracula gives to Johnathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s famous novel!
Nov 12, 2023 • Subscribe
Pokémon, Hermes, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Petshop of Horrors
More like this
134 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 9
Listen with discretion and care since on today’s episode we speak about intergenerational trauma, modern slavery, and human trafficking. Pretty intense stuff for a fantasy manga but Akino…
126 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 1
It is horror season on our book club podcast, so it is horror manga time! Today’s manga is about a pet shop in Chinatown, where the mysterious manager…
128 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 3
Dog lovers will love this one yet we are now seeing author Akino experiment with the characters. She also explores some social commentary and posing morally difficult questions.…
130 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 5
A poignant volume that introduces a new character to the lore and explores feelings around death and childhood. And it may come as no surprise that even a…
131 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 6
Continuing with their book club podcast, Will and James talk about volume 6 of the surreal fantasy horror josei manga, Petshop of Horrors! Today’s stories are very much…
133 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 8
Come join our book club and listen as we read Akino Matsuri’s horror stories, one that is about a mermaid. Another about a family that move into a…
127 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 2
Cat lovers will enjoy the continuation of our spooky season read along, as James and Will experience multiple stories from the Petshop of Horror. There’s one about a…
135 - Petshop of Horrors vol. 10
Author Matsuri closes out the final chapters and leaves no stone unturned, Chris speaks, Q-Chan shows off their human form and a climatic meeting with D’s father finally…
Petshop of Horrors
A manga about a mysterious pet shop hidden in Chinatown run by Count D that deals in legendary and fantasy creatures. Continue reading →
136: Petshop of Horrors: Flowers and Detective
Is this the final episode of ‘We Appreciate Manga’? I guess we will have to see… Either way James has an announcement to make but first we give…
132 - Petshop of Horror vol. 7
Today we talk about the importance of character-based story telling superseding social and political commentary, be it human trafficking, weight loss and police brutality. Albeit a fantasy story,…
The Newtypes Episode 21: Idaten Deities, Petshop of Horrors, and Jujutsu Kaisen
Welcome to episode 21 of The Newtypes podcast, where three bumblefucks get themselves trapped all night for their "Halloween Special" and 2nd Season debut. 0:00 Welcome 2:10 Intro 2:19 Season 2…
Pet Shop of Horrors
Pet Shop of Horrors (1999) I definitely would have watched more of these. Pet Shop of Horrors is a great example of ‘episodic’ storytelling, with its sombre tales…
The Horrors of Another
Hello, and welcome back to another video today we will be taking a look at the Another anime and going over some of the horror elements that I…
Webtoon Recommendation: Clinic Of Horrors
Clinic of Horrors is a 2-year-old comedy horror comic created by artist PokuriMio and writer Merryweather. Together, in March 2019, they released their first episode of their Webtoon…
Holmes of Kyoto, Vol. 4
By Mai Mochizuki and Shizu Yamauchi. Released in Japan by Futabasha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin. Rarely have I had to eat…
Horrors of Animated Food Hygiene #2
Today: Polar Bear Cafe Episode 20 In the second story from this episode, “Summer Festival“, Polar Bear and Grizzly jointly run a stall at the local Summer Festival…
Pet Shop of Horrors | KYOTO VIDEO
In 1999, the nascent genre of "josei horror" finally got its moment in the sun. And while it was brief, it's certainly good enough to look back on…
Sky diary #7: Parade of horrors
It’s Saturday night and I’m writing this and listening to a lot of Soft Machine. Somehow I’d never heard this band, but they were right at the genesis…
Episode 129, "3D13Y"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast we have Stephen Paul and Greg Werner on to help us discuss the in and outs of the first part…
Dynamite Headdy's Horrors
Dynamite Headdy has a secure yet easily sidelined role in Treasure’s catalog. It’s not unfairly maligned like Advance Guardian Heroes or L...
Episode 129, "3D13Y"
On this episode of The One Piece Podcast we have Stephen Paul and Greg Werner on to help us discuss the in and outs of the first part…
Episode 129 – Gintamafia
We now begin our journey through the final arc of the Gintama anime. The Silver Soul Arc is here and we are not alone to experience this momentous…
Pet Shop of Horrors (with Morgana Santilli)
Covers all 10 volumes of the original Pet Shop of Horrors series by Matsuri Akino.Welcome to Count D's pet shop, where you can find the rarest pets that…
Devilman Crybaby, Fruits Basket, Gravitation TV, Rose of Versailles, Sailor Moon
Princess Connect! Re:Dive – 05 – Hospital of Horrors
This week Yuuki has a bad fever, so the girls take him to the hospital. At least, they think it’s a hospital. The eccentrically dressed (even for this world…
A review of Nekopara Vol. 4
Well my list of reviewed games is all screwed up now. For years, I’ve had a review of something called Nekopara Complete Edition listed, a bundle that included…
Kowabana Podcast Episode 129
Several tales of bizarre and terrifying creatures to thrill and chill you this summer. What’s really lurking out there? Perhaps The post Kowabana Podcast Episode 129 first appeared…
Episode 129 - Lights Follow
After nine years, we are still around. On this episode of the podcast, we are covering some more stuff from Netflix. We start by over the be...
Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 4
By Reia and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andria Cheng. One…
Reign of the Seven Spellblades, Vol. 4
By Bokuto Uno and Miyuki Ruria. Released in Japan as “Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by…
In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 4
By Ceez and Tenmaso. Released in Japan as “Leadale no Daichi nite” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange. Last time…
Raven of the Inner Palace, Vol. 4
By Kouko Shirakawa and Ayuko. Released in Japan as “Kōkyū no Karasu” by Shueisha Orange Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Amelia Mason. Usually when…
An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 4
An Incurable Case of Love Volume 4 by Maki Enjoji I do always wish that we got more josei from Viz, but I will take my one series…
The Holy Grail of Eris, Vol. 4
By Kujira Tokiwa and Yu-nagi. Released in Japan as “Eris no Seihai” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird. A few…
Secrets of the Silent Witch, Vol. 4
By Matsuri Isora and Nanna Fujimi. Released in Japan as “Silent Witch” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse. What is…
A Sign Of Affection Vol. 4 Review
Manga Reviews A Sign Of Affection Vol. 4 Review Shoujo Henshin shoujo, shojo, anime, manga, manga blog, anime blog
OtakuGeneration (Show #129) Vinyl Toys
NOTE: This was also cross posted in the otakugeneration LJ community. Shownotes :: (show 129) :: (website) :: (podcast feed) :: (direct download) :: (direct iTunes link) With Vinyl Toys,…
Episode 129 - Parasyte -the maxim-
This week, it’s time to take on Ayn Rand meets Junji Ito as Shaun shows Remington a show that attempts to be subtle but is more akin to…
#129 - Masaaki Yuasa’s INU-OH
The dog king rises! We're reviewing the latest and last (but hopefully not really) film from genius anime director Masaaki Yuasa and studio Science Saru, INU-OH! Our new…
061 - Chobits vol. 4
061: Chobits vol. 4 Chapters 37 to 48 By CLAMP English Translation by Shirley Kubo Lettering by John Clark Topics: When asked if she…
Unnamed Memory, Vol. 4
By Kuji Furumiya and chibi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Tangney. As I predicted, the afterword of…
Arifureta Zero, Vol. 4
By Ryo Shirakome and Takaya-ki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Rei” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by…
Bibliophile Princess, Vol. 4
By Yui and Satsuki Sheena. Released in Japan as “Mushikaburi-hime” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alyssa Niioka. Last time…
Heart Cocktail Vol 4
Heart Cocktail , based on a manga series by Watase Seizou, is a joint project between DarkWispers (Darkonius), Lonely Chaser (MartyMcflies...
Durarara!!SH, Vol. 4
By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul. Apologies to those wanting to…
BLog: Given Vol. 4
BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga. Given Vol. 4Story and art: Natsuki KizuTranslation: Sheldon DrzkaPublisher: SuBLime MangaRelease Date: Nov. 10, 2020 (…
Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 4
By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng. We’ve…
Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 4
By Shinji Cobkubo and K Akagishi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey. This review really cannot happen…
Otherside Picnic, Vol. 4
By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann. Last time…
Girls Kingdom, Vol. 4
By Nayo and Shio Sakura. Released in Japan by GL Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Philip Reuben. Because a series such as Girls…